Speculation about future Dish programing- Post SuperDish??

JohnR

Supporting Founder
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Sep 14, 2003
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Topeka, Kansas
I have read a great deal here about the short term future of Dish/HDTV with the advent of the SuperDish and the move of HD and locals to 105. I have not heard much about what may happen with available space on the side sats and the open transponders at 119 and 110 that will become "open" after the SuperDish and 105 are up and running.

A great deal of great info available here on the new, soon to be here stuff. I would love to hear what Scott and others with Dish contacts have to say about the future of Dish. Super-Duper Dish....???
 
JohnR,

I think Dish plans to minimize the use of the side sats. It costs them money to install an 18 inch dish for a Locals subscriber.

I am leaning towards the theory that Dish plans to sell the 61.5 slot and satellite to VOOM, and use the 148 and 157 slots to provide HD and locals to Alaska and Hawaii.

Others disagree, stating Dish would never give up assets (and bandwidth) to a competitor.
 
I am leaning towards the theory that Dish plans to sell the 61.5 slot and satellite to VOOM.
There is no chance that will happen. They are not going to give VOOM the means to better compete.
 
John,

I have not heard much about what may happen with available space on the side sats and the open transponders at 119 and 110 that will become "open" after the SuperDish and 105 are up and running.

Dish Network plans to use 61.5 for more secondary locals (locals other than CBS, NBC, FOX, NBC, PBS, UPN, WB, etc) in new markets that the law requires them to carry. They've already indicated as much in their filings. They don't have space for these locals at their core slots.

Dish Network could use a 148+157 solution for some kind of Alaska/Hawaii service.
 
I dont think they would put up the secondary locals in the markets that are going to be on 105. Its going to be hard to have people tolerate the size of the SuperDish let alone having to put up a second dish anyhow. There is going to be a lot of money just getting the SuperDish put up and Dish will not want the extra additional cost of a dish being at the wing slot (61.5/148).
 
Ken_F said:
Dish Network could use a 148+157 solution for some kind of Alaska/Hawaii service.

According to Lyngsat, Echo 4 at 157W currently has one transponder lit with Eugene and Portland, OR locals on it. I can easily envision a new DISH 500 config for 148/157 already.

--- WCS
 
Looks like a possibility to me, if they would ever figure out a solution for 5 or more orbital slot switching. With one using 105,110,119 or 110,119,121, adding two more slots to that (148,157) would make it 5 slots in whch the DP+44 switch coming out next year would not support.
 
wcswett said:
I can easily envision a new DISH 500 config for 148/157 already.

--- WCS

The current dish 500 will work quite well. All they need to do is update the receiver software to support that configuration.
 
I dont understand why they are putting HD on the 105 with super dish..i think it will hurt them trying to sell the bigger dish. When you can get HD with the small dish from directv. I know that most of my customers dont want a bigger dish.
 
Bruno,

Right now DISH has no choice, they don't have the space anywhere else. The other providers, DirecTV and VOOM (and the cable companies in many areas), are really starting to roll out HDTV. DISH feels (rightly so) that they have to provide it NOW. Otherwise people are going to choose other vendors and like won't drop them once they buy the hardware and commit to that vendor.

As I have said before, I too think the large dish is going to be a problem for dish.
 
JohnR said:
So are we talking about a SuperDish (105, 110,& 119) and a 148+157 solution to add locals????

Not for Alaska. AMC-2 will not reach most of Alaska. AMC-15 might be a bit better...

AMC-2: http://www.ses-americom.com/satellites/amc-2.html
AMC-15: http://www.ses-americom.com/satellites/amc-15.html


Also, only 3 transponders licensed at 157. Reportedly, 148 will not work for Alaska and Hawaii because of the angle they need to keep the satellite at to service CONUS.

What Dish does to sevrice Alaska & Hawaii depnds greatly upon what resources they use to service CONUS....
 
Bruno,

I dont understand why they are putting HD on the 105 with super dish..i think it will hurt them trying to sell the bigger dish. When you can get HD with the small dish from directv. I know that most of my customers dont want a bigger dish.
As someone else mentioned, right now, Dish Network doesn't have any capacity left for additional HDTV at their core DBS ("small dish") slots. DirecTV doesn't have much, if any, capacity left either right now, although will be gaining enough for 6-8 channels when a new satellite launches next spring. But after those ~8 HDTV channels, DirecTV won't really have the means to add additional channnels (before 2006) unless they also migrate everyone to a new, larger dish.

The new 105 slot was supposed to be a competitive advantage for Dish Network. As they've said, it will give them capacity for up to 50 HD channels, while DirecTV's total HD channel capacity until 2006 will be remain in the range of 12-15 national HD channels (with higher compression) -- unless they also deploy a larger dish using leased capacity from PanAmSat.

But if the Superdish is 36" wide and remains that way--with roof-mounting discouraged-- it will be too large for a substantial percentage of customers. A 26-28" elliptical dish with a superior HD offering would've been a significant competitive advantage, imo, but I don't think they'll get nearly the same benefit in the market with a 36" model.

I hope Dish realizes that 36" is a significant deterrent, and they'll need to have all the HDTV they can to overcome it. A comparable offering, or even a few more HD channels than DirecTV, won't cut it. If that means west feeds of HBO-HD and Starz-HD (2 HD feeds per premium movie package), then so be it.
 
From what Dish announced in Baltimore, they want 50 HDTV Stations by the end of the year next year on 105 plus they want to add a boat load of new locals.
 
I really hope they use some HD space to put up East and West HD locals. That would give them equivalent local HD that cable has in the two largest markets, plus being able to use them for all the white areas elsewhere. I think this would be a lot of ban for the buck. I know I would pay extra to have ABC/NBC/WB/UPN in HD like I have with CBSHD.


Jay
 
JWhite,

The law prevents Dish from providing out-of-market HD feeds to all its customers.

The CBS-HD on Dish Network isn't available to everyone; it's generally available only to customers living in 17 markets where CBS corporate owns the station. CBS corporate granted the equivalent of a waiver to every Dish customer living in the markets they serve with their own stations. This was a one time deal as part of an agreement to get Sears-sponsored HDTV programming in stores.

Dish reportedly offered to carry the HD feeds for other networks at one point, but its offer was declined.
 
Ken what may confuse many people is the talk of the upcoming NBC-HD Channel which has been rumored around here and a few other sites.

It's confusing because people think NBC-HD is the network when it's not. I am unsure that NBC-HD is but I am told that it is NOT a NBC HD feed like CBS-HD is on Dish. It will however have a lot of NBC programming in HD but the shows will be delayed and it will also be the home for the Olympics on NBC in HDTV.

I am wondering if Bravo HD (which I don't think is seen anywhere yet) will be rebranded to NBC-HD.
 
Scott,

Bravo-HD does show some NBC content in HD (like the West Wing). Bravo-HD is also the announced outlet for the NBC Olympics coverage in HD.

I have not heard anything about the channel receiving a new name, but that is always possible.
 
This is the first I have heard about an NBC-owned satellite channel being the home of the Olympics in HDTV. Will they be carrying any coverage live in HD on their broadcast affiliates?